Shiba Kyouichi
Shiba Kyouichi (芝 恭一, Kyōichi Shiba) is a powerful Hero kept in the prisons of the Japanese Branch of the Hero Clan. In Volume 2, he was paired up with Kurumi, Takashi, and Yuki as an observer tasked with eliminating Mio as an S-Rank Threat. It was soon revealed that Shiba is a chimera using DNA from Jin Toujou but was soon imprisoned in the Hero Clan due to the threat that he could pose. After his defeat in Volume 11, Shiba now became a servant of Basara Toujou through the Master-Servant Contract and he now works for him as a kind of personal detective, as well as being his trump card. Appearance Shiba is a tall well-built young man in his twenties with long brown hair tied using red ribbons and he has been seen to be dressed in the main combat uniform of the Hero Clan. He is seen to have his eyes narrowed into slits and rarely opens them, however, when he finally opens them it shown that they are black with slit red pupils. He also keeps his face set in a mocking smile, which Shiba only wipes off on rare occasions of annoyance, surprise or anger. Shiba is later seen wearing casual clothing outside his uniform and after leaving the Hero Clan. Personality He was first introduced as a calm and joyful person. Unlike a portion of the Heroes from the village in Japan, he doesn't hold a grudge against Basara due to the incident from five years ago where he lost control of Banishing Shift. Shiba appeared to be loyal to the village and followed the Elders' instruction without question as he was sent to eliminate Mio as an S-Rank Target without question despite being imprisoned due to how dangerous he is and even causing a certain "incident". Despite not hating Basara, Shiba questioned Basara who he felt was screwing around by protecting the daughter of the former Demon Lord but still acted as a minor overseer. Despite his jocking side, Shiba has shown to be quiet intelligence and level-headed, as he had continued to think about forming a strong barrier that wouldn't cause damage to the city, while it also had to be a suitable location for their fight, while initially stopping both Takashi and Kurumi from fighting in the barrier that Valga created. However, the loyalty that he held towards the Elders was all a facade so that he could prepare for his true goal to enact his vengeance against both the Vatican and Hero Clan for creating and imprisoning him. Though Shiba had initially hated and cursed himself for being born as one of their experiments, he later started to feel flattered that the Vatican went to such lengths to clone and recreate the power of Jin Toujou, even feeling respect for the latter. Despite all of his actions and putting people on edge, Shiba has never told a lie about the reasons for his actions and was outspoken about them. He understands the true nature of the Hero Clan and firmly believes that he's saving the world by destroying them, which Basara himself agreed with to a certain extent, but still believed that the world needs the hero clan. Though Shiba doesn't hesitate to use even normal humans to achieve his goals, knowing that by removing the barrier he put around Kyoto could cause the Four Gods to run amok, which is the last resort for him to succeed. Shiba's confident in his abilities and prides himself on his intellect. He doesn't mind going out of his way to explain his himself, and even gives credit to people such as Basara that are able to follow along with his thought process. He's direct and has a way with words that often cause him to get under peoples skin and put them on edge a bit. Though Shiba ultimately loses to Basara, he was grateful to Basara and Chisato for sparing his life. He accepted the terms of Basara's contract knowing that one mistake could easily end his life. He takes solace in the fact that although he lost to Basara, he was still able to achieve his revenge against the Vatican and with that little bit of solace, he agrees to obediently follow Basara. History After Albareos, the commander of the Frontlines and Special Department in the Vatican failed to clone Jin Toujou several times using his DNA and forbidden magic with four other batches of clones. Instead of making attempts to reproduce his abilities, it was later decided that it would be better to create a far stronger being by combining the cells of mythical beasts, as well as normal and guardian spirits. After more failures and corruption caused, one of the Ten Gods, Reginleif became involved resulting in better results. Among the thirteenth batch, Shiba Kyouichi was born and was first deemed a failure, until it was found out that he solved their issues with the corruption inside of him due to having the cells of a high-ranking demon within him, as well as convert that into power. This meant that Shiba could become as powerful as Jin causing them to focus on making him stronger. However, he started growing too powerful and Shiba couldn't be killed since the corruption stored within him could also be released engulf the entire Vatican. And couldn't ask Reginleif for help since they believed that he returned to the Divine Realm. Unbeknownst to them, the high-ranked god tried to absorb Shiba using two armguards to attain all his powers for himself, however, he instead ended up being absorbed in Shiba granting him Reginleif's powers, memories, and knowledge. Looking for people to share to blame for Shiba's creation, in exchange for far more political power, a symbiotic relationship between both the Vatican and Japanese Hero Clan was born. Shiba would soon spend the next twenty years of his life imprisoned like a bird in a cage plotting his revenge. Powers and Abilities Hero and Chimeric Powers Shiba is a powerful Hero who Basara considered to be "Ove-Talented" rather than a "Genius" and he is far more dangerous than Banishing Shift. Unlike most heroes, he emits a vicious red-black aura instead of the usual green. His power is so incomprehensible that it may exceed that of the Four Gods: Byakko, Seiryuu, Suzaku, and Genbu combined. Shiba is later revealed to be a clone of Jin Toujou made using genetic material from other beings, thus making him a chimeric being with the potential to rival Jin due to being able to absorb and convert corruption into power; however, he grew too powerful and having absorbed Reginleif who desired his power, he became a being no one in the Hero Clan could mess with. His strength alone caused even the Leader of the Four Gods, Kouryuu to accept Shiba as an authoritative figure. In volume 11, after amassing almost infinite ki through him syncing with Kouryuu via due to being compatible with the Five Elements and using Reginleif's full power made him superior to Basara and the others who completed their Master-Servant Vow. If were to Shiba absorb a manifested Kouryuu, then he would become an omnipotent being, however, his loss was due to him being unable to obtain the power of Yang, a major flaw in his strategies. *'Immense Strength:' He has immense strength superior to that of even most heroes, being able to break the special barrier, which handled the powerful shock waves of Valga using a single casual hit. Shiba was able to block Basara's Brynhildr with one hand, then sent him backward a great distance. *'Immense Speed:' Although not on par with Basara, Shiba is an extremely fast and agile fighter, being able to appear in front of him without being noticed in a false attempt to kill him. In their initial clash, he was able to avoid all Basara's attacks even react when he used his Banyuusekiryoku to move at god-like speed. Corruption Absorption: Due to him having the cells of high-levels demons, Shiba has the unique power to both absorb and store almost limitless corruption that could end the Hero Clan, then converts that into power. Despite him being viewed as more of a threat than Banishing Shift, the Hero Clan and Vatican couldn't kill him due to the threat of all the corruption contained in Shiba being released and swallow everything around him if he were to die. Shiba can absorb living beings, it was first shown when he absorbed Reginlief taking his power, knowledge, and memories. Inside of Shiba is an absolute abyss, which is able to entrap even someone as powerful as Reginleif who was unable to escape. Ki Manipulation: Shiba is a main ki-based fighter, as such he is able to control the ki of both himself and others, almost killing Takashi after overloading his ki despite blocking his strike. He is afforded different abilities more so than others, able to fire off ki waves; channel and absorb elemental ki from his environment gaining a brown aura after absorbing earth-based ki; suppress his presence and appear invisible, and control the ki found in magic and attacks such as Basara's Shoumetsukensen. Similar to him being able to absorb limitless corruption, Shiba could potentially be able to absorb limitless ki from the planet, especially after syncing with Kouryuu. *'Ki Sense:' This is first hinted in Volume 2, as Shiba could "feel" both the events and fights in the barrier after being kicked out by Takashi. By sensing the ki of others, he can sense and predict the attacks of opponents' as fast as Basara based on things such as "killing intent", letting Shiba avoid them in an efficient manner. It was possible for him to sense that corrected spiritual balance inside Basara, the Ki of the unborn children in a woman's womb and discover a person's identity based upon their Ki. Magic Expert: Aside from just his superior combat skills, Shiba can create a replica of Byakko using Georgius as a base, then later used the four gods to create a near-perfect three-dimensional barrier around Kyoto, which was weakened at the west side due to it not having the genuine Byakko at the time. He could also materialize a visual screen, which let him and Basara witness Mio and the others trying to reach the latter. Master Combatant: Shiba is among the most skilled and fearsome combatants in the series despite lacking the normal Hero training due to his imprisonment. He could effortlessly defeat Takashi and Celis, both powerful and skilled heroes in their own right. He overpowered Basara and even almost succeeded in killing him in their initial match. Shiba is shown to utilize kicks and punches covered in ki most of the time, but whenever he gets serious, he uses Reginleif. Master-Servant Contract (Servant): Basara formed a master-servant pact with Shiba, but instead of him using Maria's power, he used his own, as such if Shiba ever betrayed them, he would be sent to the zero dimension. It is later revealed that Basara formed a Master-Servant Vow with him without the others knowing. Other Skills Master Strategies: Shiba is a master strategist, planner, and manipulator as he planned several moves ahead of even Basara Toujou and The Elders, who're known as being great thinkers in their respective groups. He can also use even the simplest of ideas that even the four of them had overlooked as he decided to "bring down" Kouryuu instead of "summoning him", then even tricked Basara in bringing Byakko with him after using Celis' Georgius to create a Byakko Replica, while planning on using Georgius from the beginning as a vessel for Kouryuu from the start. Aside from being able to outsmart numerous people on more than one occasion, he has a particular skill in psychological warfare as Shiba used a number of emotional situations to an edge on people. Equipment Reginleif: The Ten God in charge of the project attempted to absorb Shiba by using two arm guards, however, he underestimated Shiba and got absorbed into him becoming his magic gauntlets. He is shown to be able to create an invisible forcefield using Reginleif. Chisato has stated that Reginleif surpasses that of Brynhildr in terms of raw power alone as the former having one of the Ten Gods, while the latter having the strongest valkyrie. *'Armor:' In Volume 11, in order to draw out the full power of Reginlief, Shiba allowed his gauntlets to corrode him, fully absorbing Reginlief into himself in the process, thus creating an organic devilish exoskeleton with metal differing from what the gauntlets were made from, four colors based on the four elements: red, white, black, and blue; however, metal and fire were most dominant among them due to Reginleif's flames, due to the relation between the fire and metal with the earth element, which would be strengthened if he absorbed Kouryuu resulting in him achieving balance with the five elements. It would've swallowed both his flesh and mind if not for him using the four elements. This armor is inconceivably strong able to endure many slashes from Yuki's Sakuya without a scratch. Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (十拳剣, Sword of Length of Ten Fists): In his final battle with Basara, Shiba, while wearing Reginlief, combined five different ki to create a red-colored god sword to use as a final trump card against Basara. Trivia *His first name (芝) means "Turf", "Lawn" or "Ground". **His surname name (恭一) means "Respectful One". *After the events of volume 11, Shiba moves into Chisato's old apartment and lives rent-free. Category:Male Characters Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Former Antagonists